New tests of Naval Sonar

A long-running fight over whether a new US Naval sonar hurts whales has flared up again as US regulators near a decision on whether to allow the Navy to test its sonar in most of the world's oceans. Government biologists say the sonar poses little threat to whales but there is clear evidence that military sonar can harm or kill marine mammals.

The sonar is known as SURTASS-LFA. Hanging in the water underneath a Navy research boat, it doesn't look especially impressive but this low-frequency sonar device outperforms every other sonar system in the world. Basically, it sends out blasts of sound that cover hundreds of square miles. The Navy built it to find submarines that slipped past older kinds of sonar. Currently, the Navy is only allowed to test this sonar in an isolated part of the western Pacific but they want to do much more, by putting the devices on four ships that would range over most of the world's oceans. In order to do that, the Navy needs a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. In June, the agency proposed to grant it, concluding that the system posed a negligible threat to the health of marine mammals.

Marine Connection’s Liz Sandeman comments “Over the years there has been at least 30 beaked whale strandings relating to military exercises , in particular around the Canary Islands. There is a growing number of strandings around the world that are associated with active sonar. Many whales that are fatally impacted sink to the bottom of the ocean, therefore the true death toll cannot be estimated. Advancing technology is not necessarily wrong but navies worldwide cannot continue injuring or killing innocent life to do so”.

Ken Hollingshead, the National Marine Fisheries Service official who proposes to give the Navy the new permit says the Navy has spent millions on research into the side effects of SURTASS-LFA since 2002. However tests have shown that some whales stop singing and swim away when the sonar waves hit, some animals have actually been killed. The fisheries service didn’t give the public enough time to respond to the new plan, which was unveiled only recently.

The public comment period on the new proposal closed July 24. The Navy's permits could be issued by the middle of August.